Petty Officer

Petty Officer



By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, October 20, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Election '08: No one's vote should be swayed by Gen. Colin Powell's long-expected Obama endorsement. Like other self-serving, 11th-hour Obama supporters, his reasons couldn't be shallower.

When novelist Christopher Buckley recently endorsed Barack Obama for president, he didn't come up with very compelling reasons. "He is that rara avis" (rare bird), according to the son of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., "the politician who writes his own books. Imagine." That presumably will make our armed forces feel better when Obama squanders the extraordinary turnaround they engineered in Iraq.

The younger Buckley's backing sounds eerily similar to another skilled writer's equally irrational judgment of another dangerous Democratic presidential nominee. "It was as if he knew that God had given him intelligence and good work that would make sense, and so he could give his strength to the world and get new strength back," Norman Mailer wrote after meeting candidate Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Carter's "strength" was viewed differently by the Soviet Union, which after less than three years of Carter was emboldened enough to invade Afghanistan.

More seriousness might have been expected from former Secretary of State Powell. But on NBC's "Meet the Press," the four-star general described Obama as "a transformational figure" who "because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities . . . has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

All this amounts to a string of vacuous catchphrases.

How can someone who served Ronald Reagan as he fought the Cold War, George H. W. Bush as he fought the Gulf War and George W. Bush as he fought the global war on terror support a man from leftist circles in Southside Chicago who has bragged, "I will slow our development of future combat systems" and who promises "direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions"?

Among Powell's rationales is his "difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court." Would he rather have another ACLU activist like Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the high court instead of a John Roberts or Samuel Alito?

Powell also took a cheap shot at McCain running mate Sarah Palin, whom he claimed isn't ready to be president. Truth is, Palin's qualifications outweigh those of Obama, who has never managed a small business, let alone the largest state of the Union.

The only credible conclusion, especially considering Powell's timing, calculated for maximum impact, is that this is petty payback to the Bush administration and the Republican Party for the president's refusal to take his advice on Iraq.

An Obama administration, in fact, might make Powell's prediction that the Iraq conflict cannot "be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States" seem to come true. Powell might have just given himself a future in the Democratic Party, but in this instance a fine general has not served his country.